


Photo"graphic" Evidence

by 8Verity8



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Boys Kissing, Canon Compliant, Drunken Shenanigans, Kylex brotp, M/M, POV Alex Manes, Reconciliation, Unreliable Narrator, communicating like adults, malex endgame
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2021-01-03 13:49:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21180464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/8Verity8/pseuds/8Verity8
Summary: Alex is at the Wild Pony, just hanging out with friends* and having a good time on a random Saturday night.** Showing off pictures of the new Beagle he's in the process of adopting, when a (rather graphic) photo catches his eye, sending him into a panic.*The friends are the pod squad+the humans that love them. It's Maria's bar so she's there, working, in the background.**Set in the nebulous future where Max has been magically revived through the powers of science and Alex and Michael have successfully been doing the whole friends thing for a bit.





	Photo"graphic" Evidence

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is also known as my "Damn it" fic. Mainly because I was actively writing another fic (I mean literally, the words were flowing and everything!) when this idea popped into my head. I opened a new file to jot down some notes for later, so I wouldn't forget... and then couldn't STOP! Thus this fic was born.
> 
> Thank you so much to [InsidiousIntent](https://archiveofourown.org/users/InsidiousIntent/pseuds/InsidiousIntent) for being my beta. I really appreciate the effort you put in to make my work (and thus me) look less like a scatterbrained mess.

“Oh yeah, wait. I have some pictures of her,” Alex told everyone, grabbing his phone to show them pictures of the beagle he was adopting. The paperwork had finally cleared and he was driving up to Santa Fe in the morning to pick her up.

He quickly found the latest picture from the shelter and Isobel and Liz immediately crowded in to take a peek, cooing appreciatively over Alex’s new baby girl. Max and Michael leaned closer, glancing at his phone too, but kept a more respectable distance.

“I think I have another one here somewhere,” he murmured distractedly, flipping through his photos as everyone sat back and got comfortable again.

“Oh, my fucking god,” he yelped. Staring down at his phone in shock. 

Everyone turned to look at him, displaying various degrees of shock and concern as he continued looking at his phone in horror. 

“What is it?” Liz asked, leaning over to take a peak.

He slammed the phone face down on the table in a panic, glancing around to see if anyone had managed to catch a glimpse of the screen. 

“You okay there?” Michael asked tentatively, still walking on eggshells a bit as they navigated this whole friendship thing.

Under normal circumstances, Michael’s tone alone would have been enough to distract Alex. He hated seeing that look on Michael’s face and was determined to prove to Michael that being friends wasn’t an end to _ them _, it was a new beginning.

These were _ not _ normal circumstances.

“KYLE!”

Alex quickly shuffled out of his seat and around the table, ignoring the stunned silence and the questioning voices that followed as he stormed over to the pool tables.

“Alex, what the—Hey!”

Alex took the pool stick from his hand and slammed it on the table before dragging Kyle outside. Kyle gave his opponent a hasty apology over his shoulder as they left but didn’t protest any further, obediently following Alex as he made his way to a secluded corner of the parking lot...

“Okay, this is kinda weird—”

“What the hell is this?” Alex hissed, turning on Kyle and shoving the phone into his face.

Kyle jerked back, grabbing Alex’s wrist to pull the screen away from his face with an annoyed huff, glaring at Alex. When it was back far enough, he turned back to the phone to see what Alex was talking about.

“Oh fuck.”

“Yeah, that was kinda my reaction too. Except, I was at a table full of our friends when I just _ happened _ to stumble across a picture of me and my best friend, my _ straight _best friend, that is, making out like a couple of teenagers!”

“Uh, yeah, you win that one.”

“That’s _ not _ the point Kyle! When the hell did this happen? _ How _ the hell did this happen? _ Why _did—”

“Okay, okay, I get it,” Kyle interrupted pulling his phone from his pocket. “I think I may have an idea, just hold on a sec…”

A quiet ringtone echoed between them, the tension building as they waited for the call to connect. Kyle kept glancing at him shyly then hastily looking away, whenever their eyes met. Shuffling his feet and toeing at the gravel. 

This was absolutely fucking ridiculous. This was Kyle… he and Kyle didn’t _ have _ sexual tension or whatever the fuck this was. That was not their thing, so that was most definitely _ not _ what this was. Kyle just needed to stop acting all weird about this and then the tension would go away. But then again, he was acting weird too. Why was _ he _acting so weird about this?

Because it’s _ Kyle _! That’s why! 

God, what would their friends think? No, that wasn’t right, he wasn’t worried about what _ they _ would think, he was worried what _ Michael _ would think. Kyle wasn’t just some random nobody to pass the time. Yeah, there had been that whole Maria and Michael thing a few months back… but they had moved past that, they were working on their shit now. The last thing he needed was Michael thinking he had gone and done something like this on purpose to get back at him. 

God, he was going to have to tell him. It would be so much worse, and probably end up causing a bunch of misunderstandings if he didn’t and then Michael found out about it later from someone else. And of course, there was the promise they had made, to at the very least, always be honest with each other.

_ Fuck _

“Finally!” Alex was relieved to focus on Kyle again. That’s what he needed, to collect more information before he planned his next step.

“So the reason I’m calling is, well… its cuz Alex just found a picture of us kissing on his phone, and it looks like it was taken when we went up to your place for the weekend. Neither of us can remember what happened, so I was hoping maybe you did? And could fill us in maybe?”

Damn, he should have thought of that. He was so distracted by the content in the picture he had failed to notice anything else. He was slipping.

“Uh huh, got it. So Mark is to blame for all of this—Okay yeah, sure, tequila probably is more at fault here, but it was Mark who came up with the dare, so he’s the one I’m coming after when I seek my revenge,” he laughed and something in Alex’s chest loosened. 

“What! What do you mean the pictures on _ my _ phone? Oh for fucks sake.”

Alex’s brow lifted in a silent question before it occurred to him to check his own phone for more pictures. If there were multiples on Kyle’s phone… oh, dear god, there were at least twenty! Dare or not, they both had really gone for it. In one, Kyle’s shirt was bunched up, Alex’s hand splayed across his ribs. In another, Kyle had his hand buried in Alex’s hair and looked like he had just tugged Alex into a better position. A hint of tongue could be seen in that one. They weren’t kissing in all of them, a few showed Kyle arching into Alex, head thrown back as Alex kissed the base of his throat. 

He swallowed, shifting slightly as his pants grew a little tight. He hoped Kyle was too distracted to notice, because wouldn’t that just be the fucking cherry on top. This was Kyle for crying out loud. Kyle! 

Maybe he could keep this last part to himself when he told Michael.

“Damn,” Kyle whistled. The light from his phone lit up his face, highlighting his cheekbones as he scrolled through his own collection of incriminating photos. When he appeared to be done Alex silently held out his phone, grabbing Kyle’s in turn. It was a lot of the same, a few different angles then the ones Alex had. You could clearly see Alex grabbing his ass in a few. 

“I didn’t know you had it in you Kyle,” Alex smirked, going for levity in an attempt to regain a sense of normalcy.

“Pretty sure I didn’t, I don’t think I would have forgotten _ that _,” Kyle teased. They both paused, looking at each other in horror and then Kyle was hitting redial on his phone.

“So, just to clarify… nothing else happened that night, right?”

Alex froze, dreading the answer. The tension left him as Kyle visibly relaxed.

“Oh no, nothing. No really, it was nothing. Just wanted to make sure. I’ll talk to you later.” Kyle hung up the phone and gave Alex a relieved smile.

“I take it we didn’t then—”

“No.”

“Oh, thank god.”

“So, we cool then?”

Alex gave Kyle a reassuring smile, “Yeah, were cool… Can you not tell anyone though till I’ve had a chance to talk to Guerin?” 

“You’re gonna have to make it soon,” Kyle told him. “Everyone is going to be hounding us the minute we walk through that door.”

Alex groaned, Kyle was right. There was no way their friends were going to drop this. So much for planning. He pulled his phone out and texted Michael. He wasn’t sure what he hoped for more, that Michael was keeping an eye on his phone, waiting for Alex to text him… or that he wasn’t, so that Alex could escape and put this off till tomorrow... 

He was contemplating his Jeep pretty seriously when Kyle nudged him, “Guerin’s headed this way. I’m assuming you don’t want me here for this?”

“Yeah, I’ll meet you inside.”

“K, don’t take too long though. You’re kinda feeding me to the sharks here.”

“Yeah, yeah. Just go,” Alex huffed, shoving at Kyle as Michael came up to them.

Kyle gave them both a short wave and then jogged back to the building. Michael’s eyes trailing him until he had disappeared back inside while Alex only had eyes for Michael.

“So, you gonna tell me what’s going on?” Michael drawled, giving him an easy grin that Alex saw right through.

“Yes,” Alex told him. “We promised each other complete honesty, didn’t we?” 

It was subtle, but Alex saw Michael tense further, bracing himself for the worst. It was there in the tightness around his eyes and the way he leaned back slightly, like he was preparing to run.

“It’s not that bad,” Alex assured him. “More embarrassing, really, than anything else.”

Michael just raised one eyebrow, as if to say, ‘well, go on then.’

“Okay look, a couple weeks ago Kyle and I went to visit some of his friends up in Santa Fe. We all got really drunk and some idiot thought it would be a great idea to play truth or dare, and I got dared to make out with Kyle. And some people took pictures of it on our phones. So that’s why I was freaking out because I was suddenly looking at a picture of me and Kyle kissing, and it’s _ Kyle! _ And I don't remember any of it and neither did Kyle. At least not until we called up his friend who told us what happened . Of course, I still don’t really _ remember _ it exactly, but apparently we made out for a couple minutes and that’s it, that’s all it was.”

The words spilled out of him in a rush, as he desperately tried to get everything out and just _ explain _before Michael could react or his own mortification could take over and the conversation ended up derailing on them… again.

“And there’s pictures?” Michael’s lips slowly pulled up, like he was fighting not to grin outright but just couldn’t help himself. His honey colored eyes taking on a mischievous glint as he held his hand out expectantly, “I think I’m gonna have to take a look for myself, Private.”

“Really? I’m not so sure that’s such a great idea.”

“Oh yeah, is there something you don’t want me to see?” Michael smirked as he stepped in closer; he had always enjoyed teasing Alex.

“It’s embarrassing,” he hissed, ducking his head to hide the blush he could feel creeping across his cheeks.

“Okay, I know this is totally not the right time, but you are so fucking adorable right now.” Michael chuckled softly, pulling Alex into his arms gently. 

“It can’t be _ that _ bad,” he added after a few minutes.

“It’s _ Kyle _!”

“Oh come on, just let me see them,” Michael whined, giving Alex his best puppy eyes. Once upon a time Alex would have been able to stand firm, but somewhere along the line he had lost the ability to resist Michael. Either that or Michael had become a master of the art, maybe it was another one of his alien superpowers. With a resigned sigh he handed his phone over to Michael, who gifted him with such a breathtaking smile in return that his heart skipped a few beats.

“Damn, Alex!” 

Alex groaned internally, trying to look everywhere but at Michael as he swiped through the photos, but he could still hear him, which was probably intentional on his part. Michael kept up a steady stream of appreciative sounds and filthy commentary as he went, ensuring that Alex knew just how much he liked what he was seeing. 

“Too bad Valenti’s straight,” Michael told him, shaking his head in mock disappointment as he handed the phone back to Alex. 

“You trying to make me jealous?” Alex huffed, a small besotted smile stealing across his face against his will.

“Why, is it working?”

Alex shook his head silently, the tension building again as they stared at each other. His breath hitched as Michael’s gaze dropped lower, his own eyes trailing downwards when Michael’s tongue darted out to wet his lips. He moaned at the sight and they both froze, holding their breath for what came next. He didn’t know what came next though, he didn’t know what he was supposed to do now. Michael was everything, he needed him like he needed air, and it would be so easy to give into the want, and the desire but what if that was the wrong choice? What if they weren’t ready yet?

“Why are we not kissing, right now?” Michael finally asked, shaking his head in that way he did sometimes, when he just couldn’t make sense of something. “We both know we want to…”

“I don’t know,” Alex groaned. “Because we’re trying to be friends? Because we want to do the whole being more than friends thing right this time?”

“Yeah, but it seems like friends sometimes end up kissing each other too.”

Alex shook his head sadly, “Every time we start kissing we _ stop _talking which makes it a bit difficult to do the whole friendship thing right.”

“You kissed Kyle without any problems.” Alex glared at him, but Michael just threw his hands up and laughed. “Just saying.”

“Kissing Kyle isn’t distracting. Kissing you _ is _,” Alex told him through gritted teeth.

If anything, the smile on Michael’s face grew bigger. “Hmmm, that could be a problem,” he agreed. “ We should set up some ground rules then. You know, start by taking baby steps, so we can build up our tolerance, as it were, in a more controlled environment.”

“You want me to build up a _ tolerance _ to you?” 

Michael grew silent as he actually thought about his answer, a myriad of emotions crossing his face. Alex held his breath, taut as a string as their playful banter turned serious again.

“What I _ want, _” Michael began shakily, his voice rough with emotion. “Is to be able to kiss you and then walk back into that bar together and hang out with our friends again. I want to kiss you hello and then hang out and talk and watch movies even when we’re all alone. I want to kiss you when we first meet up somewhere out in public and then go eat lunch or whatever else we might have planned. I don’t want kissing you to always feel so desperate, like I’m starving and I need to take as much as I can before it’s too late. I want to kiss you so much that kissing you is a part of our new normal.”

“Yes.”

“What?”

“Yes.” Alex couldn’t seem to get any other words to come out, so he grabbed Michael and crashed their lips together, hoping that would convey everything he was feeling in this moment. Michael moaned, opening up to him and he happily delved inside, relishing the taste of him after so many months without it.

They pulled apart, breathing heavily and still clinging to one another. “Damn it, I did it again,” Alex muttered.

“Did what?” Michael was still a little breathless and the things that was doing to Alex, _ fuck! _ He needed to focus, honesty and communication, that’s what he needed right now, he could do this.

“I had so many feelings, but I couldn’t get the words right.” Alex spoke slowly, piecing his thoughts together as he went. “I couldn’t figure out how to, I don’t know, express what I was feeling in any way that made sense. So I kissed you instead, which is exactly what we are trying to avoid.”

“Let’s make that one of the ground rules then,” Michael offered. “If we ever use a kiss to avoid the emotional stuff or whatever then we’ll talk about it after. And we can sit down and talk about whatever other rules we both want before we do this again, so we’re both on the same page and okay with everything.”

“Okay,” Alex nodded.

“Yeah?” The hopeful grin on Michael’s face was contagious and Alex found himself smiling back like the lovesick fool that he was. 

“Yeah.”

“But not tonight.” Michael pulled away, straightening his clothes and giving Alex a critical once over. “Tonight we are going to go back inside and hang out with the rest of our friends. Because we are grown ass adults who can kiss each other and then go and do other non-kissy things afterwards.”

“And we’ve already been out here for like an hour, so…”

Yeah, we should probably get back inside before anyone comes looking.” Michael glanced towards the entrance like he expected someone to be coming out to do just that.

“Honestly they probably think we’re hooking up or something or else someone probably would’ve already come looking.”

Michael opened his mouth to respond, then shut it again, shaking his head ruefully as he reached out and grabbed Alex’s hand. They both looked down at their entwined fingers with matching grins before Michael tugged him towards the door.

“Come on Private, lets go.”

**Author's Note:**

> Now you can see the other reason I refer to this as my "Damn it" fic!
> 
> Comments & Kudos feed the muse (No joke! I've literally created new content inspired by commentary from a previous fic) and always appreciated. They make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
> 
> As always, please feel free to come geek out with me on Tumblr [here](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/8verity8)
> 
> Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it.


End file.
